Family musicals appear to be stuck. Perhaps the only option for primary-school-aged children is Matilda the Musical. But nearing its fifteenth year on the West End and with a lucrative Netflix deal under its belt, it’s time for a fresh story. It’s time for colourful characters and toe-tapping musical numbers. It’s time to meet Marmaduke.
Written by Carol Peaker and scored by Alex Thomas, Marmaduke! tells the exhilarating tale of a mad mouse inventor and an inquisitive young sidekick, working together to rescue Year 6 from brain-numbing boredom.
We first meet the curious, mischievous Noah (Dylan Williams), as he learns the times tables by rote with Mr RePete (Jim Gatten). Each new times table only emphasises what Noah could instead be learning about: finding out the answers to life’s biggest questions. Though joined by a few equally fed-up classmates who each represent their own shade of curriculum reform (embracing creativity, hands-on engineering, and… a Marxist history of workers’ rights?) Noah seems unable to change Mr RePete’s Victorian attitude.
Facing a whole year of multiplication, the sudden appearance of the titular Marmaduke (Christopher Eddie) offers Noah a glimmer of hope. An eccentric inventor of the murine variety who inhabits the aptly named Mouseland, Marmaduke introduces his young sidekick to a new way of learning, one that involves experimenting with inventions (including a farcical trial and error sequence using the shape-shifting Metal Mystery Machine) and even travelling back in time to witness the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event first-hand. And yet Marmaduke still has his fair share of challenges with authority figures: the puritanical Mayor of Mouseland (Rosaline Cunningham) threatens to ban him from inventing.
As Marmaduke and Noah get into various hijinks and cement their unlikely friendship along the way, the ultimate test for the pair lies in restoring curiosity to Mr Repete’s class and simultaneously proving the utility of Marmaduke’s inventions to the Mayor. Indeed, Peaker’s tight script seamlessly navigates the parallel and interconnected storylines in Mouseland and the classroom. Peaker boldly deploys a wormhole as the metaphysical link between the two worlds, upon which rests the coming together of the two stories and, ultimately Noah’s heroism. It is, of course, highly ambitious to introduce wormhole theory to children. But this grounding in genuine scientific discovery is why Marmaduke! works so well as family entertainment; it is for the whole family, not just the kids. For their part, younger audience members are kept engaged through the highly visual storytelling style - featuring Albert Einstein himself explaining relativity, and culminating almost inexplicably in a giant exploding marshmallow.
Marmaduke! is more than a feast for the eyes. Alex Thomas’ nine original show tunes completes the sensory experience, each featuring witty lyrics and catchy melodies. The impressive range in musicality was showcased in the Sprechgesang style deployed for Einstein’s solo on theory of “vermholes”. But the stand-out musical number had to be the Mayor of Mouseland’s song: under the influence of Marmaduke’s Brain Tickler, the Mayor breaks out of her uptight character into a hilarious razzmatazz performance.
A true musical comedy, one of Marmaduke!’s greatest strengths lies in its humour. Like all great comedies, Marmaduke! invents its own lingo: from the relatable concept of an E.B.E. (Extreme Boredom Emergency) to the nonsense names of Marmaduke’s inventions, most memorably the Pester-Power-Sucker-Upper. It can often feel like family entertainment deploys one reel of jokes for the children and another for the parents. Marmaduke! manages to find humour in the universal parent-child relationship which everyone can relate to (namely parents failing to rise above their children’s pestering). That said, the political undertones, including the commentary on the current state of the national curriculum (which come to think of it does have a noticeable lack of content on the workers’ rights movement) were certainly enjoyed by anyone who has left their school days behind.
Given the clear professionalism across the storytelling, score and performances it may be surprising to hear that Marmaduke! is an amateur production. In fact, it is amateur dramatics at its best: a whole community juggling multiple roles both on and off stage in their absolute dedication to sharing the magic of live performance with their community. Particular mention should go to all who worked on the props, which brought both the ambition and absurdity of Marmaduke’s mad inventions to life.
Following the undeniable success of the Pegasus run, where Marmaduke! goes next is less certain. Oozing with potential and frankly filling a clear gap in the family theatre market, we can be sure that we will hear more of marvellous Marmaduke and his misadventures.